Is he or isn’t he has been one of the lingering questions of the U.S. Senate campaign here in Colorado.

Would President Obama come back to Denver for one last push behind the appointed senator who seems to have been a White House favorite for 22 months now? The Bennet campaign had been coy all along, letting outside analysts speculate whether the thousands of people Obama usually draws would spark Democratic turnout, or whether the prospect of Obama-Bennet hug pictures would be too risky with independent voters this year.

Bennet finally answered the question himself . . . sort of . . . in a CNN street curb interview that was not an ambush, but which came loaded with questions that appeared to surprise the candidate. While other reporters and photographers waited for a Bennet small business forum at an Arvada clothing store, CNN asked the Obama question. Bennet’s verbal math appears a bit complicated, but the bottom line comes out as, “Thanks, but no.”

Danny Stroud, her GOP challenger for House District 1, released a video in which Labuda, addressing questions at a community meeting in Bear Valley, says:

“Over the past three years we have cut over $4 billion – over $4.4 billion from the budget – because of decreased revenues.”

Well, not exactly. The $4.5 billion figure that has been thrown around lately is the combined total of all the general fund shortfalls from fiscal year 2008-09 to the current 2010-11 fiscal year. That figure does not represent cuts from the general fund, which has fallen from about a high of $7.5 billion in 2008-09 to an estimated $6.9 billion in the current year.

Rather, the $4.5 billion is the cumulative amount lawmakers have had to bridge in budgets the last three years, and some of that’s come through cutting and some from other methods.

Sen. Michael Bennet’s regular visits to speak with small business owners often turn up good camera angles, but they also shake out tough questions and periodic challenges to Democratic policies the entrepreneurs would like to see changed.

In Arvada Wednesday, shop owners told Bennet the much-reviled “1099” reporting requirements in the health care reform bill need to disappear, and he promised to keep working on it if he’s sent back to Washington.

Store owners have also challenged him on their still-rising health insurance bills, big jumps in utility prices they attribute to Xcel’s emphasis on clean energy sources, and the lack of skilled American workers to perform tasks like sewing clothes from piecework.

At AweSun Renewable Energy in far southwest Littleton on Wednesday, an instructor in the Red Rocks Community College alternative energy program asked Bennet how the U.S. can be a leader in the field if higher education cuts hurt training and innovation.

In what could be a record day for poll results in Colorado politics (this is the third, by my count), the latest into the inbox is a Rasmussen Reports survey in the U.S. Senate race that shows Republican Ken Buck at 48 percent support and Democrat Michael Bennet at 44 percent.

The automated phone poll of 750 likely Colorado voters was conducted Monday and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percent.

Two weeks ago, Rasmussen showed the race effectively tied, with Buck at 47 percent for Buck and 45 percent for Bennet. The pollster said that survey marked the closest the race had been in eight months of polling.

Two trends from recent polling: Colorado’s U.S. Senate race is deadlocked, and the gubernatorial race is either a blowout … or a dead heat.

A new CNN poll out this afternoon fits the blowout narrative, showing John Hickenlooper with a 14-point lead over Tom Tancredo in the governor’s race. That aligns with a Sunday Denver Post/9News poll, but is at odds with recent polls from PPP and Rasmussen that have Tancredo within the margin of error.

The CNN poll of 1,506 likely Colorado voters was conducted Oct. 20 throuugh yesterday and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percent.

The wife of Rep. Daniel Kagan sent a nastygram to a fellow Democrat after learning he was supporting her husband’s Republican opponent.

Paul Lhevine

Faye Kagan told Paul Lhevine that his support for Republican Christine Mastin could help the GOP take back control of the state House, and that he was stabbing her husband in the back.

Lhevine — who served as John Hickenlooper’s first mayoral campaign manager, and as chief operating officer for the Democratic National Convention — sent pre-recorded calls to district voters Tuesday, inviting them to a telephone town hall with Mastin to talk about education.

Later that night, Lhevine got this message through Facebook:

“We just got a robo call from you endorsing Christine Mastin. How can you call yourself a Democrat? Have you even met or spoken to my husband, Representative Daniel Kagan, the DEMOCRAT in this race? I am horribly offended. I am so angry I can barely speak. Thanks a lot Mr. Lhevine!!! You may have just shifted the majority to the Republicans.

A new poll by RBI Strategies, a Democratic political consulting firm, shows a virtual tie between Michael Bennet and Ken Buck.

The poll was released today on ColoradoPols, a
left-leaning political blog.

As the poll summary notes, the outcome of the race seems to hinge on turnout. The candidates are tied among those who say they’ve already voted and those who are quite certain they’ll vote. The big discrepancy is among those “very likely” or “probable” voters, where Bennet leads 38 to 31 percent.

Joey Bunch has been a reporter for 28 years, including the last 12 at The Denver Post. For various newspapers he has covered the environment, water issues, politics, civil rights, sports and the casino industry.